The title is my joke, mimicking the title of the ironic movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The inspiration is two-fold: first, my brother is back! second, where o where can I find some benzina (unleaded gas)? Yes, the trucker strike of 2012 is over pending. I have heard rumors that Salerno and Napoli (Naples) have been having protester-inspired delays at their ports. Along with this, rumors suggest that the gas shortages are following the protesters north, and Sicily’s truck distribution could resume its strike on Thursday. These are exciting times – mitigated by amazing cats, loving husband and adorable brother.

Cinque

(Uno) 1. Spending the day talking about how many cars were lined up for gas (30+ at 6:45am), the longest we’d heard of someone waiting for fuel (5:30 hours), and where benzina or gasolio (diesel) was currently available. I did get some work done, but it was around these all important conversations.

(Due) 2. Oh yea, did I mention the strike might resume on Thursday? There is a big meeting scheduled on Wednesday. I don’t really know who is meeting who, maybe Monti will be involved, after all, he is the new Prime Minister of Italy (yes, Berlusconi finally retired). In any case, the hoarders are already half the problem with the lines at the gas station, and their frenzy will only increase if the strike resumes.

(Tre) 3. Feeling trite for worrying about gas and whether I’ll have to take time off of work when the dairy farmers and other producers of perishable goods lost their inventory DAILY, other shop-owners lost revenues with reduced foot and car traffic. After all, we purposefully avoided driving this weekend and we’re looking to make a couple of big purchases (kitchen table, couch for the den).

(Quattro) 4. My brother’s back in town! We get him for a few days before he heads to Spain for a WWOOFing experience.

(Cinque) 5. Jones! Jones! Jones! If you love personal liberties, privacy or just knowing you’re riding solo, you can join me in cheering the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Jones – the court ruled that cops MUST have a warrant in order to put a GPS tracking device on your car. Phew! (Seriously, this is a reason to cheer!)